novelraw Chapter 583: Building a Moon
Chapter 583: Building a Moon
Chapter 583: Building a Moon
The first phase of the Dao Soldier System project was nearing completion.
Jie Ming stood at the edge of the eastern plains of the Infernal Sulfur Plane, gazing at the massive formation composed of rune pillars and energy nodes.
All one hundred and eight rune pillars had been erected. Each stood a hundred meters tall, their surfaces densely covered with intricate runes.
Those runes flickered with faint light beneath the gray-red sky, resonating with one another to form an energy network that covered the entire plain.
Nearby, the Black Giant priests waited respectfully for their sovereign’s inquiry.
“How is the progress on the first phase of the Dao Soldier System?”
“Ninety-three percent complete.”
Jie Ming nodded.
“Continue.” “Yes!”
Watching the Black Giant priests quickly fly down to direct the other Black Giants in their work, Jie Ming withdrew his gaze.
“Still seven percent left… It won’t be long.”
Jie Ming murmured.
At most another two or three years, and the first phase of the Dao Soldier System would be officially operational.
In that case, preparatory work could begin.
The materials required for refining Dao soldiers were numerous, but most could be substituted with alternatives available in the wizard world.
Minerals, elemental crystals, biological samples, refining bases… these were all easy to handle.
However, while studying the Dao Soldier System some time ago, Jie Ming suddenly discovered that one particular item needed to be prepared in advance.
Imperial Flow Paste.
Jie Ming turned and returned to the laboratory. After sitting in meditation to calm his mind, he located the ancient book pavilion deep within his consciousness.
The Great Dao Book Pavilion floated quietly, its entire body seemingly cast from white jade and emitting a gentle glow.
With a thought from Jie Ming, the pavilion’s doors swung open. A stream of light flew out from the depths and transformed into an ancient tome before his eyes.
He reached out to receive it and opened the pages.
The opening was a passage of classical literary Chinese:
“All plants and trees that become demons must receive the essence of moonlight, but only the moonlight of the Gengshen night will suffice. For within the moonlight of the Gengshen night lies the Imperial Flow Paste, shaped like countless olives, with ten thousand golden threads strung together and hanging down. When the plants and trees of the mortal world receive its essence, they can become demons; when foxes, ghosts, and spirits consume it, they can manifest divine abilities. Since plants and trees possess nature but lack fate, while the flowing paste possesses nature and can supplement fate; and foxes, ghosts, and spirits originally possess fate, consuming it brings great benefit.”
Jie Ming narrowed his eyes and quickly scanned the text.
Imperial Flow Paste.
In the immortal cultivation world, this substance was not exactly commonplace, but it was not particularly rare either. Its uses, however, were extremely broad.
Although refining Dao soldiers did not strictly require Imperial Flow Paste, adding it could significantly enhance the aptitude and upper limit of the Dao soldiers.
Even if not used for refining Dao soldiers, it served as top-tier material for improving cannon fodder units or for pill refining and the like. More importantly, it was a “conceptual material.”
Like Mortal Dust Qi and Incense Divine Power, Imperial Flow Paste did not need to be collected from nature. Instead, it could be created from nothing by gathering the concept of “moonlight” and mixing it with spiritual qi.
Jie Ming continued flipping through the pages.
What followed were the specific formation structures for manufacturing Imperial Flow Paste. From the layout of the formation base to the inscription of the formation patterns, every step was described in extreme detail. He spent half an hour memorizing the entire content, then closed the book and fell into deep thought.
“Moonlight…”
He raised his head and looked through the laboratory’s skylight at the sky outside.
The sky of the Infernal Sulfur Plane was a uniform gray-red, perpetually shrouded in volcanic ash and sulfur clouds.
Above the cloud layer, two orbs of light were radiating brilliance.
One was the projection of the Fire Elemental Plane, hanging there around the clock—the only “sun” of this world.
The other…
was the projection of the seventh-grade large-scale elemental pool.
Looking at the slightly dimmer projection, Jie Ming’s mouth twitched.
When he had built the seventh-grade large-scale elemental pool back then, he hadn’t paid much attention to this detail.
That massive energy core floated at the center of the plane. Its energy radiation passed through the atmosphere and formed a second luminous body in the sky. Although dimmer than a true sun, it was still bright enough to illuminate the land.
In other words, the Infernal Sulfur Plane had two suns and no moon.
“No moon, huh…”
Jie Ming rubbed his temples.
The prerequisite material for Imperial Flow Paste was “moonlight essence.”
Without a moon, where would the moonlight come from?
Just as he had once needed the concept of the sun to extract Purple East Qi, Imperial Flow Paste required the symbol of the moon.
Although the vast majority of planes did not have true stars as suns—the so-called “sun” was merely a projection of the Fire Elemental Plane—as long as that “projection” existed, the concept could be established.
Similarly, a plane’s “moon” was usually the projection of the Water Elemental Plane.
But the Infernal Sulfur Plane was too small. It had always only possessed the projection of the Fire Elemental Plane and none from the Water Elemental Plane.
This was also why a unique sulfur-based ecology had formed here—water elements were scarce while fire elements were in excess.
“Then I’ll just build an artificial moon.”
Jie Ming quickly made his decision.
He looked up at the projection of the seventh-grade large-scale elemental pool in the sky.
That thing had been hanging up there all this time, shining day and night like an idiot.
He hadn’t minded it before, but now it seemed perfect for modification.
He didn’t need to actually turn it into a moon; he only needed it to appear at night.
It could hide during the day and shine at night. He would also adjust the color and frequency of its light to make it resemble “moonlight” rather than “solar radiance.”
In this way, the Infernal Sulfur Plane would gain the concepts of “night” and “moonlight.”
With the concept, he could extract moonlight.
With moonlight, he could manufacture Imperial Flow Paste.
The logic was sound.
The problem was… he could not handle a formation modification of this level by himself.
The seventh-grade large-scale elemental pool had not been built by him personally. Adding a “day-night switching” formation without affecting its core functions, while also making it simulate the spectrum of moonlight, was already beyond his personal capabilities.
It was even further beyond the capabilities of the Black Giant priests.
Without hesitation, Jie Ming raised his hand and opened the magic network terminal, entering the internal trading platform of the Noren Workshop.
He searched for “large-scale elemental pool modification construction team.”
A bunch of results popped up immediately.
【Noren Workshop Direct Construction Team, Undertaking All Kinds of Large-Scale Facility Construction and Modification Projects】
Jie Ming casually selected one of the teams that had availability.
【Team Leader: Alfred, Sixth-Ring Formation Master】
【Team Size: 127 people, including 8 fifth-ring formation masters and 36 fourth-ring formation masters; the rest are support personnel】
【Business Scope: Elemental pools, energy nodes, protective formations, spatial anchoring…】
【Quote: Depends on project complexity; base fee starts at 5 million low-level military merits】
【Recent Availability: Schedule open within the next three months】
Jie Ming glanced over it and directly clicked “Contact.”
The other side replied very quickly.
【Alfred: Greetings, Lord Jie Ming. What assistance do you require?】
Jie Ming typed a reply, describing in detail what he needed modified.
The other side was silent for a few seconds, then sent a long string of questions.
【Alfred: You need the elemental pool to only manifest at night? How should the specific time nodes be defined? According to the plane’s rotation cycle, or a fixed duration?】
【Alfred: For simulating the moonlight spectrum, to what precision in wavelength bands? Simply lowering the color temperature, or do you need to simulate the special frequencies of a water elemental projection?】
【Alfred: How long does the elemental pool need to be shut down during the modification process? Do you have backup energy sources on your side?】
Jie Ming answered each question one by one, explaining every detail he could think of.
Several more seconds passed.
【Alfred: Understood. We can take on this project. Total quote is 8 million low-level military merits, including materials and labor costs. The construction period is approximately twenty days, provided you cooperate with the shutdown on your end. Is that acceptable?】
The corners of Jie Ming’s mouth curved upward slightly.
【Deal.】
【Prepayment of 3 million. We will set off immediately after it arrives.】
Jie Ming transferred the payment right away.
After closing the magic network terminal, he looked up once more at the bright projection in the sky.
In twenty days, the Infernal Sulfur Plane would have a “moon.”
Once the Imperial Flow Paste was produced, the quality of the Dao soldiers would rise by an entire level.
Jie Ming stood up and walked out of the laboratory.
Outside, the Black Giant priests were still busy on the eastern plains.
He glanced at the massive formation that was nearing completion, then turned and flew toward the direction of the elemental pool control formation.
Before the modification, he needed to back up all the core data of the elemental pool first.